Put up, or shut up, Shahbaz to Imran

LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Thursday requested the Supreme Court to form a full bench and settle the allegations levelled by PTI Chairman Imran Khan regarding the Multan Metro and Yabaite so that the barrage of lies and baseless accusations should end once and for all.

“If Imran was really on a mission against corruption, he would not be blind to EOBI, NICL, Nandipur project and 600 million dollars stocked up abroad,” he said, adding. “Imran Niazi is addicted to lying.”

“This rant by the PTI leader with one allegation after another only aimed at the PML-N is a textbook definition of smear campaign. He cannot claim to be a warrior against corruption while the likes of Babar Awan, sentenced by the court over corruption, sits on his lap and his lips remain sealed over Nazar Gondal and Moonis Elahi,” he added.

Addressing a press conference in Model Town, the chief minister once again told Imran to “put up or shut up”, asking him to prove his previous and current allegations or stop propagating the heinous smear campaign based on lies and deceit.

“There is no remorse on Imran’s face although every time he levels accusations, he knows that not only is he lying but also there isn’t an ounce of plausible evidence that he can back it up with,” said Shahbaz.

“I request the chief justice to treat this Subhan case as a test, make a full bench and decide it once for all who is the pathological liar and who is guilty before the nation. If I am proved guilty, I’d quit politics in addition to the sentence given by the court and if Imran is proved wrong, he should be taken to task,” said the chief minister.

“Imran Khan had promised his supporters at the 31 October rally and then during his six other speeches that he would never lie to his people, yet he has proved himself as a born liar. What can be expected of a person who can’t even fulfil the basic promise to his supporters?” questioned Shahbaz.

“This is the fifth time I have had to appear to bust the lies. Is this the reason why people had elected us? I should be at a hospital evaluating performance or in a school or in a policy intervention meeting to help serve the people. Had Imran worked for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he would not have needed to resort to these tactics. He would also understand how important this sacred trust is that the people have entrusted us with to serve them,” said the chief minister as he sounded rather fed-up of the PTI chief’s attacks.

Shahbaz said Imran had a history of making accusations and then running away. “At first I thought that he had levelled allegation of Rs 70 billion regarding due t being misguided by someone, but as Khan’s personality has unfolded, we’ve all seen that he knows its mere propaganda yet he uses it to misguide the people,” he added.

The chief minister said the PTI seemed to have created a fictional character of Faisal Subhan who met and recorded his statement with the visiting delegation of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) which never visited Pakistan during the period mentioned by the party and “then somehow this Faisal Subhan is now missing and PTI is pleading the court to launch an inquiry for his recovery”.

“I have already rebutted these allegations with proof. The CSRC in their press release said that the claim of the Yabaite is wrong that the money in question was earned through Multan Metro or that the company had anything to do with the Multan Metro project. The Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) endorsed it. The Chinese embassy official tweeted that this story is false, the CSRC blacklisted Yabaite and fined them 600,000 dollars and its owner Mr Lu was fined 300,000,” the chief minister repeated.

The matter was fully investigated and the record showed that the Capital Engineering and Construction Pvt Ltd wasn’t a registered company, he said, adding that according to the State Bank, the company had no account.

The chief minister said he had filed a defamation suit against ARY Digital in England for the same reason. He clarified that it had been filed in England not because he didn’t trust the judiciary of Pakistan but because there was too much delay and Imran was a master of exploiting delaying tactics.

Shahbaz said the Billion Tree Tsunami project was being criticised in the media for mass corruption which needed to be investigated. “I won’t allege like Imran before it is investigated and established,” he said and added that Imran had been promoting a culture of lies which was very dangerous and destructive for the socio-moral fibre of the country.